First Brew

We told everyone "two weeks" for the last four months. For every step forward we took three steps back.  Serious patience is required to properly set up a professional brewery. Pumps, valves, 90's, manifolds, chemicals, gauges, probes, regulators, glycol, hoses, lots of hoses, clamps, gaskets, mcmaster carr invoices - it really piles up, and that's barely scratching the surface.

It's all worth it in the end.

So for Cy and myself, brewing the first batch of beer the other night (Friday the 7th) felt like that scene in Dumb and Dumber when they finally make it to Aspen - WE'RE THERE, MAN!!! Now the exciting part begins, the actual brewing. We broke our 3 bbl system in with a scaled up version of our "Loose Booty" brown ale that we experimented with a few months ago. Not knowing what our brewhouse efficiency would be, we erred on the low side and nearly maxed out the entire mash tun with 340 pounds of grain!

The hydrometer told the real story - this once, modest brown ale might actually be an imperial brown by the end of fermentation. Good to know the efficiency isn't too bad either!

After a twelve hour brew day night, it was nice to have a beer out on the patio while the sun was rising. Delirious, buzzed, and aching, we had finally made it! Looking forward to our next batch - Electrocution IPA - later this week. Expect the super Loose Booty to be ready on draft soon!